Something you admire . . .

        It's a tie between courage and confidence. I believe that courage and confidence go hand in hand. To be confident, you must have the courage to be yourself. To have courage you must have confidence in yourself. I guess I admire them, and spot them in a person right away, because I didn't have courage and confidence when I was younger. In all honesty I gave up on many things, including myself. It's been said that all the things worthwhile in this life require courage: getting a job, falling in love, having children, pursuing a dream and persevering in  a difficult situation. From characters in stories to people in real life, courage will always be admirable in my eyes. Confidence is it's own branch of courage. It takes bravery to speak your mind, step into the unknown and discover who you are.
      The power to face your fears requires a confidence that you will overcome them. That confidence becomes more important than fear. I believe that if you have courage and confidence, you can do anything you set your mind to. Most of the people I admire have these qualities, and I'm fascinated by the lengths they have gone with two simple character traits. The truth is that hanging around someone with these qualities is contagious. When someone around you believes in his or her self, you begin to discover that you can do the same.  The main reason that I admire both courage and confidence the most is because in my eyes, years ago, they were super powers. Anyone around me who was confident and courageous was a powerful being who could achieve anything in the world. There were many days I wondered how it happened. How could someone be so straightforward about what they wanted, and then go for it without fear?
       Now I'm learning, little by little, that it is something you discover, buried under doubt and fear. Some people have told me I'm more confident then I believe, and I'm braver than I know. For awhile these comments were extremely difficult for me to believe, and that was frustrating for the people who said them. Now, when I look back, I faced a lot of fears of my own and I displayed confidence without even realizing it. I'm still not as confident or courageous as I'd like to be, so I suppose that's another reason why I admire these qualities in others. These people give me a goal, to become as courageous and confident as they are, maybe even more so. My heroes, role-models and favorite characters are all important for me to look up to because they give me the hope that I will one day be just as amazing as they are.